Richard II
First Post
Eccles said:
What!?! You stamped on the fluffy gray kitten? Someone's asking for a smiting. Poor little kitten.
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(='.'=)
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The Age of Worms - Morrus' Campaign - Finished 6th August!!
What!?! You stamped on the fluffy gray kitten? Someone's asking for a smiting. Poor little kitten.
/\ _ /\
(='.'=)
(")_(")~~~
Inconsequenti-AL
Breaks Games
Richard II said:
Big thumbs up for the ASCII kitten art!
Hehe - there was a bit of discussion about what to do with the evil kitten of doom...
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
After a couple of minutes spent nervously hovering over the sea of worms, there was a second series of tell-tale teleport shimmers by our side. Two figures reappeared next to us, but to our shock Maynard seemed to have decided not to rejoin us.
In his stead, Manzorian had sent a pair of new adventurers – the short notice he had had was reflected in the stature of the newest recruits.
Fez, a sinewy 3 foot four dark-skinned and feral looking Halfling, with a shaved head covered in tattoos. He leered round at his new environment with his breath hissing through tiny teeth which had been filed to points. He was covered in leathers and hides, through which protruded dozens of sharp-looking metal spikes; around his neck was a necklace of teeth (clearly enchanted to my eyes), and a collection of shrunken heads swung by their hair from his leathery belt. He appeared to have a heavy floating rock hovering in the air next to him, which bore the marks of having been struck by many dozens of weapons. The pygmy was carrying several spiked, bladed or edged weapons belted to his waist and shoulder.
Janga was a gnome, positively festooned in heavy metal armoured plates. His shield and armour were both covered with the symbol of Fahrlanghan, particularly in his aspect of god of travel and protection. The tiny cleric carried a bag slung over one shoulder which carried the auras of a selection of magical scrolls and potions.
Once we had introduced ourselves, we looked at the possibilities for exiting. There were a total of 4 ways from the cavern, two of which we had discovered before Maynard had left. Each of the other two went down a short stretch of 10 foot wide stone passageway before ending with wide bronze doors each stamped heavily with a massive symbol of Kyuss.
Heading down the left-hand passageway, we paused whilst Flynne first checked and then listened at the doorway, and then cracked it open to peek through. I could see glimpses of a thick green velveteen carpet together with richly upholstered furniture as well as glimpses of an alien and worm-filled landscape on the back walls – a landscape of caverns filled with worms and worm-like humans which burst from the ground to destroy the civilisation above them.
Also in the room were three figures, each in black heavy armour and clutching a jagged and evil looking sword. Each of them turned to face us, and we recoiled in horror at the realisation that their eyes, like the figure outside the ziggurat, had been replaced by a pair of bloated, grasping worms.
.oOo.
Flynne slammed the door shut in a heartbeat, and an instant later two figures could be heard beating upon it. The shadows around the rest of us suddenly twisted and pulled away to coalesce in a dark spot on the wall between Janga, Endo and myself. The third skeletal figure stepped through from this darkest patch and struck at Janga, its black blade scything through his armour as though it wasn’t there.
Endo turned in alarm, and his spell flared with a green light in the dark corridor. The beam of light struck the undead in the chest, but the creature threw off the worst of the spell. As I chanted, Flynne spun on the spot, allowing the door to swing free as his arrows struck the creature.
The tiny gnome cleric raised his holy symbol and yelled scripture towards the undead, but there was no effect apart from Endo complaining about a sudden splitting headache. Fez ignored this and kicked open the door screaming before he slammed a flail into the face of the undead pulling on the other side.
In the corridor behind him, things went from bad to worse as the skeletal figure continued to hack at Janga. Two blows from the shadowy blade scythed through his armour and his blood spilled through the seams. Tiny teeth scraped against the plates as the worms in the skeletal sockets stretched out and snapped at the gnome but failed to find purchase.
At the door, Fez yelled in alarm and began to flail at things in the air, whilst the undead on the other side of the door glanced at him and then glided forwards to slash and bite at the tiny savage. The sword blow he largely seemed to ignore in his fury, but the bite of the eye-worm seemed to make him look deeply unhappy, and he bagan to burble and speak nonsense as he continued to lay about himself with the cold-iron flail he was clutching.
The third of the creatures carried a more jagged and wicked-looking blade, which bit twice into Flynne; each time accompanied with a burst of null-magic. A bite from the eyeworm looked particularly vicious, causing the elf to flag noticeably.
Endo produced a wand and a rod of metamagic, and whilst the dark blast from the wand missed its target, he followed it up with a rapid spell of hasting, whilst I continued to chant encouragement to my comrades.
The two together allowed Flynne to fire a huge number of arrows which struck heavily, but the undead was still facing Janga with determination as Flynne stepped back behind Fez.
Janga chanted and healing energies burst forth, curing the wounds on the cleric as well as Flynne and the tiny pygmy warrior. As the restorative powers struck the undead, they bellowed in pain and fear as dust trickled from their dry joints. They advanced upon us – one glared and Janga who called out that his faith was stronger than its eldritch powers.
As the creatures moved forwards, Flynne was struck with another sword blade and a bite from an eye-worm, which reduced him to the level of an angry (and horrendously dangerous) infant. Another of the undead aimed its attacks at Fez, and all of them glanced off the floating stone (which darted from place to place to intercept sword blows), or the thick hides he was wearing.
Janga, however, was hit hard twice with the shadowy swordblade, and once with a bite from an eye-socket. Endo responded for him by flinging a powerful dark beam into the teeth of the closest undead, draining its strength a great deal. He then spun and gestured, sending lightning crackling between the two figures in the doorway. They simply cackled as the bolt played over them to no effect, and my use of a wand of undead-holding also had no effect on them.
Taking flight, Flynne tumbled backwards to hover over the sea of undead worms, firing one shot when he was in place. The long arrow slid through the shadowy skeleton which had stepped from the darkness to the midst of us all. Fez stepped backwards and strung hard, smashing the Kyuss-knight’s bones against the wall and it collapsed in a broken heap. His heavy blow swung onwards and he poured blow after blow on te next closest target.
Janga chanted, and called down a roaring column of fire upon the two undead. The roaring inferno caused the two undead knights to bellow in fury and pain, but once we had blinked away the after-image of the flames the two were still standing and still striding towards us. The closer one swung its barbed sword, and there was another flash of null-magic which flayed Endo of all of his magical effects whilst dealing him a terrible blow at the same time.
The other undead turned its cowled face towards me, and I was treated to a sudden barrage of mental images of worms and decay. I fought off the images before the creature struck Fez with its sword and a bite from its eye-worms.
Backing up, Endo cast a spell of disintegration upon the creature which had stripped away his protective spells. The creature bellowed in pain and rage as its remaining flesh and sinew were boiled away by the magics. Cowering from a potential attack, I stepped up to Fez and cast a displacement spell in the teeth of the still-smouldering undead.
Suddenly, from over our shoulders, Flynne’s arrows crashed home – the first nailed the recently part-disintegrated undead to the floor, where it slumped and was still. The other three arrows slammed into the last creature, and it collapsed into a heap of bones and armour on the floor.
.oOo.
We moved cautiously into the room, and read the large red runes on the wall, which described the names and tasks of the four powerful knights of Kyuss. While Fez smashed the furniture and carved into the walls with his adamantine ‘axe’ (more of a razor-sharp flake of the metal tied to a long bone with a length of creeper), Endo interpreted the walls to confirm that these four were the greatest warriors of Kyuss within the necropolis.
We took flight back across the lake of worms, and as we touched down on the far side before the last set of doors, they crashed open. Silhouetted in front of pictures and patterns of alien slaughter and random barely describable chaos stood a thin and rotting six armed figure.
A voice spoke in our minds.
“You would be the fulfillers of prophecy. You have my thanks,” gloated the undead spellweaver.
In his stead, Manzorian had sent a pair of new adventurers – the short notice he had had was reflected in the stature of the newest recruits.
Fez, a sinewy 3 foot four dark-skinned and feral looking Halfling, with a shaved head covered in tattoos. He leered round at his new environment with his breath hissing through tiny teeth which had been filed to points. He was covered in leathers and hides, through which protruded dozens of sharp-looking metal spikes; around his neck was a necklace of teeth (clearly enchanted to my eyes), and a collection of shrunken heads swung by their hair from his leathery belt. He appeared to have a heavy floating rock hovering in the air next to him, which bore the marks of having been struck by many dozens of weapons. The pygmy was carrying several spiked, bladed or edged weapons belted to his waist and shoulder.
Janga was a gnome, positively festooned in heavy metal armoured plates. His shield and armour were both covered with the symbol of Fahrlanghan, particularly in his aspect of god of travel and protection. The tiny cleric carried a bag slung over one shoulder which carried the auras of a selection of magical scrolls and potions.
Once we had introduced ourselves, we looked at the possibilities for exiting. There were a total of 4 ways from the cavern, two of which we had discovered before Maynard had left. Each of the other two went down a short stretch of 10 foot wide stone passageway before ending with wide bronze doors each stamped heavily with a massive symbol of Kyuss.
Heading down the left-hand passageway, we paused whilst Flynne first checked and then listened at the doorway, and then cracked it open to peek through. I could see glimpses of a thick green velveteen carpet together with richly upholstered furniture as well as glimpses of an alien and worm-filled landscape on the back walls – a landscape of caverns filled with worms and worm-like humans which burst from the ground to destroy the civilisation above them.
Also in the room were three figures, each in black heavy armour and clutching a jagged and evil looking sword. Each of them turned to face us, and we recoiled in horror at the realisation that their eyes, like the figure outside the ziggurat, had been replaced by a pair of bloated, grasping worms.
.oOo.
Flynne slammed the door shut in a heartbeat, and an instant later two figures could be heard beating upon it. The shadows around the rest of us suddenly twisted and pulled away to coalesce in a dark spot on the wall between Janga, Endo and myself. The third skeletal figure stepped through from this darkest patch and struck at Janga, its black blade scything through his armour as though it wasn’t there.
Endo turned in alarm, and his spell flared with a green light in the dark corridor. The beam of light struck the undead in the chest, but the creature threw off the worst of the spell. As I chanted, Flynne spun on the spot, allowing the door to swing free as his arrows struck the creature.
The tiny gnome cleric raised his holy symbol and yelled scripture towards the undead, but there was no effect apart from Endo complaining about a sudden splitting headache. Fez ignored this and kicked open the door screaming before he slammed a flail into the face of the undead pulling on the other side.
In the corridor behind him, things went from bad to worse as the skeletal figure continued to hack at Janga. Two blows from the shadowy blade scythed through his armour and his blood spilled through the seams. Tiny teeth scraped against the plates as the worms in the skeletal sockets stretched out and snapped at the gnome but failed to find purchase.
At the door, Fez yelled in alarm and began to flail at things in the air, whilst the undead on the other side of the door glanced at him and then glided forwards to slash and bite at the tiny savage. The sword blow he largely seemed to ignore in his fury, but the bite of the eye-worm seemed to make him look deeply unhappy, and he bagan to burble and speak nonsense as he continued to lay about himself with the cold-iron flail he was clutching.
The third of the creatures carried a more jagged and wicked-looking blade, which bit twice into Flynne; each time accompanied with a burst of null-magic. A bite from the eyeworm looked particularly vicious, causing the elf to flag noticeably.
Endo produced a wand and a rod of metamagic, and whilst the dark blast from the wand missed its target, he followed it up with a rapid spell of hasting, whilst I continued to chant encouragement to my comrades.
The two together allowed Flynne to fire a huge number of arrows which struck heavily, but the undead was still facing Janga with determination as Flynne stepped back behind Fez.
Janga chanted and healing energies burst forth, curing the wounds on the cleric as well as Flynne and the tiny pygmy warrior. As the restorative powers struck the undead, they bellowed in pain and fear as dust trickled from their dry joints. They advanced upon us – one glared and Janga who called out that his faith was stronger than its eldritch powers.
As the creatures moved forwards, Flynne was struck with another sword blade and a bite from an eye-worm, which reduced him to the level of an angry (and horrendously dangerous) infant. Another of the undead aimed its attacks at Fez, and all of them glanced off the floating stone (which darted from place to place to intercept sword blows), or the thick hides he was wearing.
Janga, however, was hit hard twice with the shadowy swordblade, and once with a bite from an eye-socket. Endo responded for him by flinging a powerful dark beam into the teeth of the closest undead, draining its strength a great deal. He then spun and gestured, sending lightning crackling between the two figures in the doorway. They simply cackled as the bolt played over them to no effect, and my use of a wand of undead-holding also had no effect on them.
Taking flight, Flynne tumbled backwards to hover over the sea of undead worms, firing one shot when he was in place. The long arrow slid through the shadowy skeleton which had stepped from the darkness to the midst of us all. Fez stepped backwards and strung hard, smashing the Kyuss-knight’s bones against the wall and it collapsed in a broken heap. His heavy blow swung onwards and he poured blow after blow on te next closest target.
Janga chanted, and called down a roaring column of fire upon the two undead. The roaring inferno caused the two undead knights to bellow in fury and pain, but once we had blinked away the after-image of the flames the two were still standing and still striding towards us. The closer one swung its barbed sword, and there was another flash of null-magic which flayed Endo of all of his magical effects whilst dealing him a terrible blow at the same time.
The other undead turned its cowled face towards me, and I was treated to a sudden barrage of mental images of worms and decay. I fought off the images before the creature struck Fez with its sword and a bite from its eye-worms.
Backing up, Endo cast a spell of disintegration upon the creature which had stripped away his protective spells. The creature bellowed in pain and rage as its remaining flesh and sinew were boiled away by the magics. Cowering from a potential attack, I stepped up to Fez and cast a displacement spell in the teeth of the still-smouldering undead.
Suddenly, from over our shoulders, Flynne’s arrows crashed home – the first nailed the recently part-disintegrated undead to the floor, where it slumped and was still. The other three arrows slammed into the last creature, and it collapsed into a heap of bones and armour on the floor.
.oOo.
We moved cautiously into the room, and read the large red runes on the wall, which described the names and tasks of the four powerful knights of Kyuss. While Fez smashed the furniture and carved into the walls with his adamantine ‘axe’ (more of a razor-sharp flake of the metal tied to a long bone with a length of creeper), Endo interpreted the walls to confirm that these four were the greatest warriors of Kyuss within the necropolis.
We took flight back across the lake of worms, and as we touched down on the far side before the last set of doors, they crashed open. Silhouetted in front of pictures and patterns of alien slaughter and random barely describable chaos stood a thin and rotting six armed figure.
A voice spoke in our minds.
“You would be the fulfillers of prophecy. You have my thanks,” gloated the undead spellweaver.
Last edited:
Inconsequenti-AL
Breaks Games
Eccles said:
Don't you just hate gloating bad guys.
6 Arms does not make them any better. Particularly when they use those appendages to cast multiples spells at the same time!
Another fine writeup Mr Eccles! Thanks!
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
“Let me ask you,” continued the rotting undead spellweaver. “Did the worm burst forth from the bowels of the city? Has the Rod been found?”
We glanced at one another briefly, each of us unwilling to attract the creature’s attention by responding.
“Well,” its mocking voice spoke in our minds once more; ringing with confidence and power. “If you’re not minded to talk, then I shall bid you adieu. It’s been delightful having you here, but I’m sure it’s time that you were leaving.”
“And you are?” It was Flynne, reacting almost instinctively to the gloating symbol of power.
“I am called Mackarr, the Harbinger of Worms.”
There was a pause at our end of the corridor whilst all 5 of us swallowed deeply. With some trepidation, we asked after the missing mage, Balakard.
“I may have seen him,” responded what Endo was urgently whispering was a lich. ]. “He might’ve taken my advice and left. I would suggest that you do the same; perhaps within the next… ten seconds?”
There was a creeping sense of dread which swept over us all as I began chanting under my breath to help fight it off. Fez’s tiny form dashed up the short length of corridor and struck at the creature with his tiny iron flail. The weapon struck true and raised up a shower of sparks from the undead’s immensely tough bones. The lich snarled in anger, as Flynne’s arrows sped down the corridor. One shot missed, but two more struck home amidst bursts of undead-slaying power. As the effects faded, the lich swept the arrows out of its body.
As Endo cast, a skeletal hand materialised, floating some two or three feet in front of him. The hand hurtled across the corridor and touched the lich, which simply laughed off Endo’s spell, before responding with its own magics. The six arms gestured simultaneously, each pair moving through the forms of a spell, whilst the creature spoke in an eldritch and incomprehensible language.
A wave of force hurtled up the corridor, pinning us each in place so that we were unable to move any closer to the lich. As it stepped away, a second spell took effect, and the creature simply disappeared from sight.
Reacting swiftly, Janga called on the powers of Fahrlanghan, dispelling the invisibility, and Flynne fired a series of four arrows into the creature. Endo’s next spell was again cast through the skeletal hand, tapping Fez on the shoulder and warping the tiny body which swelled to massive proportions. The limbs extended and visibly toughened; his skin greying and developing an almost rocky patina. Even the flail he had in hand grew and developed a massive series of spikes as he grew into the form of a huge annis hag, which towered over the spellweaver and slammed three rage-fuelled tremendous blows down onto the alien being.
The stone ground beneath the being cracked and cobwebbed from the strength of the blows, which drove the lich several inches into the floor, and we all stared on, aghast, as the lich simply dusted itself off with one of its many arms and turned to face us once more. As it adjusted its robes smugly, we could all see that there was not so much as a scratch on it. No mark from Flynne’s many arrows, nothing.
The creature grinned skeletally, before trying to move backwards. Fez reacted instinctively by reaching down and grabbing it by the top of its decaying skull. The creature began to cast, and the energies of a word of stunning simply washed over the barbarian. It then spoke once again and vanished before reappearing just out of Fez’s reach.
Whilst Janga began to trudge down the short corridor, hindered by his squat legs and heavy armour, Endo coated the area the lich was standing in with fine golden dust. The monster then simply moved around the corner and out of sight. I could hear the voice chanting as a series of other spells were cast, and I could see Fez firing a vast slingstone round the corner before swearing as it caused no damage whatsoever to the undead. Three thick lances of fire shot out of the room, immolating Janga’s tiny body.
Reaching the room, Janga looked around and shouted instructions to Fez to destroy a sigil on the left wall, whilst heading to the right where he could see the lich and “some sort of gemstone in a box”. The brave cleric raised his tiny mace as he went, I could hear the sound of it smashing into something on a wooden table.
Still singing, I finally managed to find the correct sequence of notes to disrupt and extinguish the repulsion effect, and Flynne ran into the room firing.
“Damn,” he yelled back to us. “It’s got images! There are 6 of it now!” – He fired his bow, and then updated us.
“Five now!”
The floor shaking with his massive steps, Fez stepped into the room and swept a huge adamantine axe into the wall, sending shards of stone and shattered runic magic tumbling from to the floor.
“Curse you!” The Harbinger began casting, but there was an edge of concern in its mental voice now. It cast three spells simultaneously; wreathing its body in a pale blue flame, and blasting Flynne with three terrible rays of fire before gesturing at Fez. The tremendous figure of the barbarian’s annis-hag form simply vanished without so much as a whisper. The spellweaver lich turned and began to stalk down the corridor towards me, three intertwining versions of the same creature weaving in and out of none another as it came.
I pulled out a magic wand and fired two missiles of pure magic at it as it approached. The globes struck unerringly, and suddenly there was only one of the rotting features heading in my direction. It wasn’t much of a comfort, but did allow Flynne to fire several shots at it from behind; and I saw three of the four arrows pass through the creature’s body; a sure hallmark of the effects of a displacing illusion.
Endo, meanwhile, was crouched in one corner of the room and wailing in apparent fear. A closer look, however, showed that he was clutching his Rod of Silence, and his flailing arms were going through the complicated motions of dispelling magic. It failed, however, and the creature’s arms spun. Almost instantly, there was the appearance of half a dozen more entwining versions of the spellweaver, all of which were casting and all of which gestured back into the room.
A vast burst of colours filled the chamber, rays of differing colours blasting into each of my comrades. In a heartbeat Janga lay on the ground choking from the effects of a green ray and then was still. Flynne managed to shake off whatever had struck him, and Endo’s robes were burned and pitted with acid.
I sprinted down the corridor, diving between the outstretched arms of the still casting lich and rolled to a stop at the feet of Janga’s tiny corpse where I snatched a scroll from his belt-pouch and read it quickly. A vast burst of powerful bright light exploded down the corridor, enveloping the lich as it washed past it.
Blinking the after-effects out of my eyes, I could see the creature was hurt now. Each of the many versions of it in the corridor was smouldering, pitted from the sunburst and Flynne’s arrows. He fired four more times, and four of the many images vanished as enchanted arrows sped through them.
With a rapid invocation, Endo cast a spell of transformation on himself which duplicated in an instant onto his familiar. Each of them warped and transformed, growing to a tremendous size and each of them seemed somehow to grow extra neck after extra neck. Two huge hydras appeared in the corridor, blocking the lich’s exit.
In response, the undead monstrosity blasted each of them with a dark ray sapping them of strength.
Flynne fired a number of shots, and some of the images disappeared. He paused to check his handiwork, and nodded in satisfaction at the fact that there were only three versions of the creature, and that that one seemed to have an arrow sticking out of it. Then the hydra in the corridor unleashed a barrage of bites. The last two images disappeared before the hydra hissed in pain and alarm as the sapping cold from the blue flames around the lich hurt it.
The second hydra was about to attack when I slapped its flank, reading a scroll of restoration as I did so, allowing it to recover its strength from the enfeebling ray. The hydra then lashed down again and again with its many heads, sometimes snapping through the displacing effect and sometimes biting down onto the creature’s flailing limbs. Within seconds the heads were wreathed in frost, lips frosted solidly together. The skin of the hydra was cracking in the intense cold, but down and down went the savage heads.
Finally, it was done. Amidst another flash of freezing cold, the hydra’s skull was bitten and crushed by Endo’s hydra form.
.oOo.
The room faded, and we could feel around us the whispering voices in a hundred languages, which slowly and subtly blurred into one voice. Then the darkness cleared, and we could see the realisation of prophecy after prophecy beneath us. Worms poured from graves, a comet fell from the sky, whilst a city was wreathed in smoke. A man cackled as he held a blackened arm to his still-bleeding stump.
As each vision was shown to us, a voice echoed the wording of the prophecy, before suddenly all went dark once more. The voice continued.
“The tripartate spirit shall become one; the mighty are undone; the Hero of the Pit gives his city to the undead.”
.oOo.
Abruptly, the visions ceased, and with them all the magic in the ziggurat seemed to collapse at once. The tens of thousands of worms festering in the halls suddenly stopped writhing over one another and lay dead. Lights began to flicker whilst the stench of death rose around us.
And the spectre of Kyuss’ cowled face leered in our minds.
“I know you now,” it leered as we scrambled to leave – the walls were now shaking and parts of the ceiling began to crumble and fall. We snatched up Janga’s body and the gemstone on the low table before Endo cast the spell to take us away. Seconds before he finished, the spell restraining Fez ended, and we were all whirled away by the power of Endo’s teleport spell.
We glanced at one another briefly, each of us unwilling to attract the creature’s attention by responding.
“Well,” its mocking voice spoke in our minds once more; ringing with confidence and power. “If you’re not minded to talk, then I shall bid you adieu. It’s been delightful having you here, but I’m sure it’s time that you were leaving.”
“And you are?” It was Flynne, reacting almost instinctively to the gloating symbol of power.
“I am called Mackarr, the Harbinger of Worms.”
There was a pause at our end of the corridor whilst all 5 of us swallowed deeply. With some trepidation, we asked after the missing mage, Balakard.
“I may have seen him,” responded what Endo was urgently whispering was a lich. ]. “He might’ve taken my advice and left. I would suggest that you do the same; perhaps within the next… ten seconds?”
There was a creeping sense of dread which swept over us all as I began chanting under my breath to help fight it off. Fez’s tiny form dashed up the short length of corridor and struck at the creature with his tiny iron flail. The weapon struck true and raised up a shower of sparks from the undead’s immensely tough bones. The lich snarled in anger, as Flynne’s arrows sped down the corridor. One shot missed, but two more struck home amidst bursts of undead-slaying power. As the effects faded, the lich swept the arrows out of its body.
As Endo cast, a skeletal hand materialised, floating some two or three feet in front of him. The hand hurtled across the corridor and touched the lich, which simply laughed off Endo’s spell, before responding with its own magics. The six arms gestured simultaneously, each pair moving through the forms of a spell, whilst the creature spoke in an eldritch and incomprehensible language.
A wave of force hurtled up the corridor, pinning us each in place so that we were unable to move any closer to the lich. As it stepped away, a second spell took effect, and the creature simply disappeared from sight.
Reacting swiftly, Janga called on the powers of Fahrlanghan, dispelling the invisibility, and Flynne fired a series of four arrows into the creature. Endo’s next spell was again cast through the skeletal hand, tapping Fez on the shoulder and warping the tiny body which swelled to massive proportions. The limbs extended and visibly toughened; his skin greying and developing an almost rocky patina. Even the flail he had in hand grew and developed a massive series of spikes as he grew into the form of a huge annis hag, which towered over the spellweaver and slammed three rage-fuelled tremendous blows down onto the alien being.
The stone ground beneath the being cracked and cobwebbed from the strength of the blows, which drove the lich several inches into the floor, and we all stared on, aghast, as the lich simply dusted itself off with one of its many arms and turned to face us once more. As it adjusted its robes smugly, we could all see that there was not so much as a scratch on it. No mark from Flynne’s many arrows, nothing.
The creature grinned skeletally, before trying to move backwards. Fez reacted instinctively by reaching down and grabbing it by the top of its decaying skull. The creature began to cast, and the energies of a word of stunning simply washed over the barbarian. It then spoke once again and vanished before reappearing just out of Fez’s reach.
Whilst Janga began to trudge down the short corridor, hindered by his squat legs and heavy armour, Endo coated the area the lich was standing in with fine golden dust. The monster then simply moved around the corner and out of sight. I could hear the voice chanting as a series of other spells were cast, and I could see Fez firing a vast slingstone round the corner before swearing as it caused no damage whatsoever to the undead. Three thick lances of fire shot out of the room, immolating Janga’s tiny body.
Reaching the room, Janga looked around and shouted instructions to Fez to destroy a sigil on the left wall, whilst heading to the right where he could see the lich and “some sort of gemstone in a box”. The brave cleric raised his tiny mace as he went, I could hear the sound of it smashing into something on a wooden table.
Still singing, I finally managed to find the correct sequence of notes to disrupt and extinguish the repulsion effect, and Flynne ran into the room firing.
“Damn,” he yelled back to us. “It’s got images! There are 6 of it now!” – He fired his bow, and then updated us.
“Five now!”
The floor shaking with his massive steps, Fez stepped into the room and swept a huge adamantine axe into the wall, sending shards of stone and shattered runic magic tumbling from to the floor.
“Curse you!” The Harbinger began casting, but there was an edge of concern in its mental voice now. It cast three spells simultaneously; wreathing its body in a pale blue flame, and blasting Flynne with three terrible rays of fire before gesturing at Fez. The tremendous figure of the barbarian’s annis-hag form simply vanished without so much as a whisper. The spellweaver lich turned and began to stalk down the corridor towards me, three intertwining versions of the same creature weaving in and out of none another as it came.
I pulled out a magic wand and fired two missiles of pure magic at it as it approached. The globes struck unerringly, and suddenly there was only one of the rotting features heading in my direction. It wasn’t much of a comfort, but did allow Flynne to fire several shots at it from behind; and I saw three of the four arrows pass through the creature’s body; a sure hallmark of the effects of a displacing illusion.
Endo, meanwhile, was crouched in one corner of the room and wailing in apparent fear. A closer look, however, showed that he was clutching his Rod of Silence, and his flailing arms were going through the complicated motions of dispelling magic. It failed, however, and the creature’s arms spun. Almost instantly, there was the appearance of half a dozen more entwining versions of the spellweaver, all of which were casting and all of which gestured back into the room.
A vast burst of colours filled the chamber, rays of differing colours blasting into each of my comrades. In a heartbeat Janga lay on the ground choking from the effects of a green ray and then was still. Flynne managed to shake off whatever had struck him, and Endo’s robes were burned and pitted with acid.
I sprinted down the corridor, diving between the outstretched arms of the still casting lich and rolled to a stop at the feet of Janga’s tiny corpse where I snatched a scroll from his belt-pouch and read it quickly. A vast burst of powerful bright light exploded down the corridor, enveloping the lich as it washed past it.
Blinking the after-effects out of my eyes, I could see the creature was hurt now. Each of the many versions of it in the corridor was smouldering, pitted from the sunburst and Flynne’s arrows. He fired four more times, and four of the many images vanished as enchanted arrows sped through them.
With a rapid invocation, Endo cast a spell of transformation on himself which duplicated in an instant onto his familiar. Each of them warped and transformed, growing to a tremendous size and each of them seemed somehow to grow extra neck after extra neck. Two huge hydras appeared in the corridor, blocking the lich’s exit.
In response, the undead monstrosity blasted each of them with a dark ray sapping them of strength.
Flynne fired a number of shots, and some of the images disappeared. He paused to check his handiwork, and nodded in satisfaction at the fact that there were only three versions of the creature, and that that one seemed to have an arrow sticking out of it. Then the hydra in the corridor unleashed a barrage of bites. The last two images disappeared before the hydra hissed in pain and alarm as the sapping cold from the blue flames around the lich hurt it.
The second hydra was about to attack when I slapped its flank, reading a scroll of restoration as I did so, allowing it to recover its strength from the enfeebling ray. The hydra then lashed down again and again with its many heads, sometimes snapping through the displacing effect and sometimes biting down onto the creature’s flailing limbs. Within seconds the heads were wreathed in frost, lips frosted solidly together. The skin of the hydra was cracking in the intense cold, but down and down went the savage heads.
Finally, it was done. Amidst another flash of freezing cold, the hydra’s skull was bitten and crushed by Endo’s hydra form.
.oOo.
The room faded, and we could feel around us the whispering voices in a hundred languages, which slowly and subtly blurred into one voice. Then the darkness cleared, and we could see the realisation of prophecy after prophecy beneath us. Worms poured from graves, a comet fell from the sky, whilst a city was wreathed in smoke. A man cackled as he held a blackened arm to his still-bleeding stump.
As each vision was shown to us, a voice echoed the wording of the prophecy, before suddenly all went dark once more. The voice continued.
“The tripartate spirit shall become one; the mighty are undone; the Hero of the Pit gives his city to the undead.”
.oOo.
Abruptly, the visions ceased, and with them all the magic in the ziggurat seemed to collapse at once. The tens of thousands of worms festering in the halls suddenly stopped writhing over one another and lay dead. Lights began to flicker whilst the stench of death rose around us.
And the spectre of Kyuss’ cowled face leered in our minds.
“I know you now,” it leered as we scrambled to leave – the walls were now shaking and parts of the ceiling began to crumble and fall. We snatched up Janga’s body and the gemstone on the low table before Endo cast the spell to take us away. Seconds before he finished, the spell restraining Fez ended, and we were all whirled away by the power of Endo’s teleport spell.
Darmanicus
I'm Ray...of Enfeeblement
Eccles said:
Heh, that thing was tough. Combat is getting pretty deadly now, especially since we've agreed the use of death effect spells
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